We didn’t know it at the time\, but when the Berlin Wall fel
l in 1989\, it triggered a movement toward democratization and free enterp
rise that spread—and is still spreading—around the world\, freeing up once
-closed societies. In its own way\, the transformation of the global econo
my wrought by e-commerce is as momentous a phenomenon when it comes to dis
solving barriers—in this case\, to an entirely new retail economy